The wonderful rabbit hole of BBEdit

I never thought I’d be saying this, but I am now a BBEdit user (I think). The app is great, obviously, but I am surprised to see myself adopting this complicated, complex, and power-user app instead of the minimal, blazing fast, and really fantastic MarkEdit.

Maybe writing this very post will trigger another change, as it usually does, but somehow this time it feels different. I know it’s only been a couple of days since I published the list of all the apps I use on my Mac. I did mention BBEdit there, that I was using it for work for specific things and as a reliable, general-purpose scratchpad. I guess this is how the seed grew into a full tree, and I’m ready to bear its nutritious fruits. Unless, like the other plants and flowers on my balcony, it dries up and ends up in the bin.¹

A few years ago, I used BBEdit properly for the first time during a week or so, when a new version of Drafts had a bug preventing it from being launched on my Mac. While I waited for the Drafts update — it was quick, two or three days later — I enjoyed BBEdit quite a bit, while I didn’t think I would. Like I said before, the app can be overwhelming at first, with dozens of menu options, a well-made but rich interface right out of the box (status bar, sidebar, toolbar, clippings window, navigation bar, &c.), and a jargon that can be a bit scary when scrolling through the menus. Stationery? Balance tags? Zap Gremlins? What?

But even back then, despite all this, there was already this sense of delight, this perception of quality; a feeling that made me want to use this app more, not less. Eventually, Drafts worked again, and I couldn’t be happier. For a while. As soon as I wrote about my “workflow” with Drafts, my needs changed.

Soon, I realised that I preferred to use a “file-based” text editor (like TextEdit, MarkEdit, or, yes, BBEdit), and not a “library-based” app (like Drafts, Tot, or The Archive).²

Last year, I switched to the fabulous MarkEdit, and I haven’t looked back since, which is a first. In the past, my favourite text editing apps changed every three to four months: The Archive, Tot, Drafts, uFocus, iA Writer, TextEdit, CotEditor, &c. MarkEdit was the first one since Drafts to be such a no-brainer for my needs: Markdown only, no HTML, no CSS, fast, reliable, nothing more. I will go as far as to say that MarkEdit is indeed a perfect app, one that truly excels at doing what it is supposed to do.

In the recent weeks, using BBEdit at work for various purposes has got me hooked. With BBEdit, you can basically do anything text-related. If you think something is possible or should be possible, BBEdit probably will allow you to do it. The features are not only endless, but they seem to work very well, and everything feels well thought out, smart, and efficient.

If this sense of power is addictive and appealing, the core of the app, the text editing block, is always front and centre, always snappy, always stable, always good. Most of BBEdit’s features live in the Mac menu bar; nothing is in your way, and everything feels in the right place: here when you need it, hidden if you don’t. The settings — which are an app by themselves — thankfully allow users to hide any menu items they don’t want and easily assign keyboard shortcuts.

Recently I’ve stumbled upon this blog post by Ty Bolt, and this part resonated a lot with me, even if the app mentioned is not BBEdit, but Panic’s Nova:

Nova is one of the best pieces of software I’ve ever used. It’s refined and polished and there’s no equivalent on Linux and Windows. It has its own personality, but also feels like an extension of the operating system. Which is a hallmark of a great Mac app. Folks in the community call them Mac-assed Mac apps. These apps are what make MacOS really great. The best apps I have used are all Mac apps.

A great app “feels like an extension of the operating system.” Amen to that. In my adventures in making my web browsing experience better, I’ve tried the browser called SigmaOS. You would think it’s strange for a browser to include the letters OS in its name when it’s not technically an operating system, but this is actually how the app feels: a full OS, using MacOS only as a launcher. Some people love this kind of app or service, and I understand them. I just don’t.³

BBEdit really feels like an extension of MacOS. It doesn’t only feel like a native app, but truly part of the system. Maybe this is what makes me like it so much? Maybe this is where this sense of “delight” comes from?

The result is that I’m here, exhausted but very satisfied, typing this draft in my shiny new BBEdit set-up. I spent most of my free time in the last couple of days configuring it the way I need it, the way I want it to be. Six months ago, I would have never bothered to spend a single hour doing that, but this time, somehow, I did, happily. I even plan to continue during the weekend, read more of the user manual, and tweak a few more things until every little remaining annoyance is ironed out. I’m almost there.

The app is worth the effort I’m certain, but even if it’s not, the time I spent discovering all of the things the app can do and learning some AppleScript is time well spent in my books.⁴ Some people like to spend dozens of hours playing video games, others will spend their weekends binge-watching the latest season of their favourite TV show; me, I’m very happy with the time spent taming BBEdit.

Now, if I’ve learned one thing writing on this blog, it is that telling the world about my habits, workflow, favourite apps, and software choices, means that I will change my mind right after. Maybe if I purchase the BBEdit licence I’ll stick with it longer? The free version seems to be enough for me, surprisingly. We will see how this turns out. In the meantime, I will keep MarkEdit installed on my machine, just in case.

UPDATE (Oct 1): And I bought a licence…